Luận văn tiếng Anh:A study of hedging devices in conversations in Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell = Nghiên cứu các phương tiện rào đón trong các cuộc hội thoại của tác phẩm Cuốn theo chiều gió của nhà văn Margaret Mitchell. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 22 15

M.A. Thesis. Linguistics -- University of Languages and International Studies. Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2012
The objectives of the research were to investigate the linguistic devices of hedges and major pragmatic functions of identified hedges in the conversations in the novel of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Two levels of linguistic descriptions – the quantitative and pragmatic analysis mainly based on taxonomy of hedging devices by Yu (2009) and polypragmatic paradigm of hedges by Hyland (1998) – revealed that there are four main hedging categories used in the conversations in the novel, namely, modal hedges, performative hedges, quantificational hedges and pragmatic-marker hedges, in which quantificational hedges (43.8%) are employed with the highest frequency, followed by modal hedges (34.8%), performative hedges (8.2%) and other minor types of tag questions, subjunctives, and depersonalization (5.7%). The research findings also pointed out that speaker-orientation, accuracy-orientation and hearer-orientation are three main functions that identified hedging devices fulfill. Among these types of function, speaker-oriented hedges (48.1%) emerge to be the most prominent, preceding accuracy-oriented hedges (45.7%) and hearer-oriented hedges (6.2%)

PART 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................1
1. Rationale.................................................................................................1
2. Aims of the research and research questions............................................2
3. Implications of the research.....................................................................2
4. Scope of the research ..............................................................................3
5. Methodology...........................................................................................3
6. Research design ......................................................................................4
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1 ..........................................................................................................5
Theoretical Background........................................................................................5
1.1. Definitions of hedge................................................................................5
1.2. Classification of hedging devices and hedging functions.........................6
1.3. Hedges versus conversational maxims and politeness strategies ............11
1.4. About Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell ..................................15
1.5. Chapter summary ..................................................................................16
CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................ 17
Findings and Discussions .................................................................................... 17
2.1. Overview of hedging devices in Gone with the Wind by Margaret
Mitchell.............................................................................................................17
2.2. Analysis of hedging devices in Gone with the Wind ..............................19
2.2.1. Analysis of modal hedges ...............................................................19
2.2.2. Analysis of performative hedges.....................................................22
2.2.3. Analysis of quantificational hedges ................................................24
2.2.4. Analysis of pragmatic-marker hedges.............................................28
2.2.5. Analysis of tag questions, subjunctives and depersonalization ........32
2.3. Functional analysis of hedging devices in Gone with the Wind .............34
2.3.1. Speaker-oriented function of hedges...............................................35
2.3.2. Accuracy-oriented function of hedges ............................................36
2.3.3. Hearer-oriented function of hedges.................................................37
PART 3: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 39
1. Recapitulation of main ideas of the research..........................................39
2. Limitations of the study.........................................................................40
3. Suggestions for further studies ..............................................................40
REFERENCES...................................................................................................... 42
This part will briefly present the rationale of the research, indicate the research
purposes and research questions, and finally outline the organization of the study as
a whole.
1. Rationale
It is widely accepted that making frictions in human beings‘ everyday interaction
within a community is almost inevitable. In order to reduce such a friction and
maintain peace and social harmony, there are certain strategies that should be
followed. One of these strategies is ―hedging‖.
Introduced for the first time by Lakoff in 1972, the term of ―hedge‖ was generally
understood as ―words whose job is to make thing fuzzier or less fuzzy‖. Since its
appearance, hedges have received a great deal of attention in conversation analysis
where such devices are used to create conviviality, facilitate discussion, or show
politeness (Holmes, 1984; 1995). Hedging has also been associated with conveying
purposive vagueness (Powell, 1985) and as a means of achieving distance between
the speaker and what is said (Skelton, 1997).
Being an interesting linguistic phenomenon, hedges have been concerned by a
number of linguists. However, as a matter of fact, Yu (2009: 34) indicated that the
majority of hedge studies are found to be concerned with academic or scientific
writing, including genres such as economics (Pindi and Bloor, 1986; Channell,
1990), science digests (Fahnestock, 1986), medical discourse (Salager-Meyer, 1991;
1993; 1994; Adams-Smith, 1984), molecular genetics articles (Myers, 1989), and
news-writing (Zuck & Zuck, 1986; 1987).
The field of spoken discourse, in contrast, seems to receive a comparatively limited
number of comprehensive and thorough investigations. Hence, with the hope of
contributing to enrich the literature of researches on hedging in spoken discourse
and to shed some light on the hedging phenomenon in American everyday conversations by investigating linguistic realization of hedging, pragmatic functions
and some linguistic features of identified hedges, the author of the present paper
decided to carry out the study entitled ―A study of hedging devices in
conversations in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell‖. In addition to
certain theoretical contributions, the study is expected to have certain implications
in language teaching when various linguistic expressions would be used to serve as
valuable examples for hedging demonstration at work.
2. Aims of the research and research questions
As mentioned earlier, the present research aimed to investigate linguistic devices of
hedging, their linguistic realization and their major pragmatic functions in
conversations in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
The present study attempts to address the following research questions:
 What are main hedging devices employed in conversations in Gone with the
Wind by Margaret Mitchell?
 What are major functions of identified hedging devices in conversations in
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell?
3. Implications of the research
Both theoretical and practical implications may be offered by the findings of the
present study. From the theoretical perspective, this study may serve as an
additional source of empirical studies on hedges in a way that it indicated different
types of hedging devices used in everyday conversations to achieve different
pragmatic effects and proved the possibility of utilizing the combined
polypragmatic functions of hedges to investigate hedging phenomenon in spoken
discourse.
In terms of practical perspective, the present study may serve certain samples as a
source of authentic materials in learning and teaching hedging devices and functions
of hedges since a text-based approach is believed to be a key dealing with the lack of pragmatic competence of non-native speakers in communication with native
ones.
4. Scope of the research
First, although communication comes with paralinguistic and extra-linguistic
factors, the present study is restricted to the verbal mode of hedging. That is to say,
the prosodic features (speed, tone, loudness, etc.) and the kinesic mode (facial
expressions, eye contact, etc.) are outside the research scope. Adjacency pairs, in
addition, are also beyond the scope of the investigation.
Second, though pragmatic functions of hedging in spoken discourses are believed to
be realized through different communicative strategies without using hedging
expressions, such as saying sorry, showing regret, expressing interest, and so on,
the present paper is restrained to linguistic realization of hedges, from which the
pragmatic effects of hedges are expected to be portrayed.
5. Methodology
The research is based on a detailed contextual analysis of conversations in the novel
of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. A comprehensive understanding of
hedging devices in Gone with the Wind involves at least two levels of linguistic
description: a quantitative analysis and a pragmatic analysis. The process of
analysis is described as follows.
- Quantitative analysis: The purpose of quantitative surface-level analysis is to
generalize the major forms of hedges in conversations. All the indentified items
were scrutinized in their context to select those linguistic categories that express
hedges. At this point, the taxonomy suggested by Yu (2009) was mainly
employed to guide the process of identification of hedging devices in the
conversations in the novel.
- Pragmatic analysis: The research then employed a contextual analysis of
authentic conversations at the second level of analysis to identify the purposes served by identified hedging devices. At this point, the pragmatic analysis was
adapted from the theories introduced by Hyland (1998).
6. Research design
The study is designed to include three main parts.
Part 1: Introduction, presenting the research rationale, aims of the study, research
questions, implications of the research, study scope, methodology and the
structure of the paper.
Part 2: Development
Chapter1: Theoretical Background, including definitions of hedge, hedging
taxonomies, relationship between hedges and conversational maxims and
politeness strategies, and general information on Gone with the Wind.
Chapter 2: Findings and Discussions, describing major hedging devices,
their linguistic realization and pragmatic functions in Gone with the Wind.
Part 3: Conclusion, summarizing the major points, limitations, and suggestions for
further studies.

7503S94Zq7x6QUJ

---